Global Commodities Forum - Session 3: The future of oil and gas dependent countries in an era of energy transition

Rudy Van Beurden has been Senior Vice President Public Affairs at FluxSwiss since 1 February 2020. Besides his current activities within the Fluxys group, he has been chairman of the Board of EASEE-gas from 2013 till 2019, a European association set up in 2002 in order to develop and promote business practices to simplify and streamline both physical gas transfer and trading across Europe. From 2015 till June 2020 he was also chairman of the board the Belgian gas association, gas.be.

Within Fluxys, and following the ownership unbundling into a fully independent gas infrastructure company, he became responsible for international business development of the company between 2008 and 2012. In 2012 he became the corporate Communication and Public Affairs Manager at Fluxys. 

Rudy Van Beurden graduated as an aeronautical engineer from the Polytechnical Division of the Royal Military Academy in Brussels.  After having served as a Belgian Air Force officer for about 10 years, Rudy Van Beurden started his career in the gas business in 1996 with the former integrated Belgian gas company Distrigas.  In the past he has been responsible for a wide range of operational, commercial, strategy and M&A activities within the company.  Within Distrigas he contributed to the creation and operational setup of the Zeebrugge trading hub and later became Managing Director of Huberator, an affiliate company, to manage the hub services.

René Bautz is Chairman of the Global Gas Centre and also CEO of Gaznat SA, Chairman of Swiss Energy Trading (SET) and Gas&Com (Telecommunication), Board and Committee member of several companies and organizations within the gas industry: Fingaz, Swissgas, Swiss Gas Invest, Transitgas and Unigaz. He also acts at an international level in the frame of Eurogas, Green Gas Initiative.

In 2002, René Bautz joined Gaznat, starting his career in the company as Chief technical officer. He then served as Chief operating officer for two years before taking over as CEO of Gaznat.

René Bautz studied electrical engineering and holds a Master of Science degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). He dedicated his entire professional career to the energy sector. René Bautz held the position of Managing director at the Société Electrique des Forces de l’Aubonne (SEFA) for 5 years. Prior to this, he served as Director of the Utility of the town of Bienne (ESB). During this period, between 1994 and 2002, he was also Board member and manager of several companies within the water and energy industries.

The first 10 years of his career were spent at the power company Electricité Neuchâteloise (ENSA) as Head of the studies and construction. René Bautz then joined Câbles Cortaillod (now Nexans Switzerland) as Head of the electric network and testing division. As part of his training, he completed an internship on behalf of Brown Boveri Canada in Montreal where he participated in the development of a test platform for electric generators. He further completed his training in the field of business economics and management.

Arash Duero specializes in the political and economic dimensions of energy resources and is a Senior Fellow at the European Cluster for Climate, Energy and Resource Security at the Centre for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies, University of Bonn.

Moreover, Arash is a Principal at Bingmann Pflüger International, one of Germany’s leading strategy consultancies specializing in energy, commodities and infrastructure. There, he heads its energy, commodities, and infrastructure operations and has for over a decade had the dual function of providing strategic and communications advice to both its Managing Partners as well as to a wide range of clients across multiple industries and functions. These include national governments, multilateral institutions, public and private corporations, infrastructure operators, SPVs, as well as national and international organizations. Arash also regularly serves as a Senior Expert at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, is an Advisor to the Global Gas Centre, is a Member of the Economic Council Germany and is a contributor to the Atlantik Brücke’s Working Group for Natural Resources and Critical Raw Materials.

He previously worked at the European Commission's Joint Research Center - Institute for Energy, as a researcher at the Environmental Policy Research Centre of the Free University in Berlin, as a research associate at the Berlin Centre for Caspian Region Studies, participated in the Resilien-tech Working Group of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering and was a long-time Senior Fellow at the European Centre for Climate, Energy and Resource Security, Department of War Studies, King’s College London.

A native of Savannah, Georgia, USA, Arash studied economics at Georgia Southern University and holds an advanced degree in Political Science with a focus on Macroeconomics and International Energy Policy from the Free University in Berlin, Germany.

Dr. Thackwray “Dax” Driver has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Chamber of Trinidad & Tobago since 2003. He has pioneered numerous new initiatives and activities for the Energy Chamber, including the Safe to Work programme and the Learning Centre. He is the Immediate Past Chair of the Caribbean Chambers Network (CARICHAM).

He was previously the Chairman of the Trinidad & Tobago Economic Development Board and has been a Board member of the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Services Industries, the University of Trinidad & Tobago, and T&T Natural Gas Liquids Ltd. Prior to joining the Energy Chamber, he was the coordinator of Trinidad and Tobago’s Agricultural Sector Reform Programme. He has a Ph.D. in History from the University of London.